Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2012 (Archive)

[Someone Somewhere]

OK, I hadn't really looked at the prices for them.

By memory the previous generation ones weren't so bad, but I'm not sure.

 

[InvalidError]

The E3 series Xeons, 1230+, are nothing more than i7's without IGP and have added ECC ram support but work in normal consumer boards and with normal desktop ram. The 1245 is the exception as it has IGP.

All the LGA1155/1150 Xeons have IGPs. It is merely disabled on non-1xx5 models. The Ivy and Haswell generation Xeon 1xxx have many more models with IGP enabled: three for Ivy (1245/1265/1275) and five for Haswell (1245/1265/1268/1275/1285) if we only consider 4C8T variants.

 

[logainofhades]

I tend to ignore anything past a 1245 v3 because the price/performance just isn't there. I have not seen any 126x Xeons. Just 1245 straight to a 1270.

Given the price of the 1270/1275, you are better off buying a 4770k

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/cpu/#s=13,26&sort=a8&f=34

 

[Onus]

Sorry for not answering sooner; I've been away.
My CPU is currently at stock. I have realized that although it may be beaten severely in benchmarks by the i5, in actual use there's little if any discernible difference to me (other people may be more sensitive to framerates over 60 than I am). Concerning games, the graphics card used will likely make a bigger difference. Benchmarks are predominantly single-function (although some are threaded), but actual use tends to be multi-threaded, in which case the FX seems to do well; I don't turn off other stuff when I'm playing. This is not to imply I feel a big difference with the i5, but there is a small one slight.

 

[littleleo]

And yet you again FAIL to add on 9370 as a very potent gaming cpu. I've seen it going for 239$ to 289$ including the liquid cooling kit. Don't tell me that the liquid cooling kit provided is not worth 30-50$ to a user ...you are then left with a ~200$ to 250$ 4.7ghz 8 cores cpu that matches high end i7 chips in almost all games. Yet it still fails to make the list as even a mention ?? And don't bring me the 220W TDP as a reason ...I am in a heating climate where 70% of year, addition W dumped into the house doesn't does not count as additional expense ( alot of people are in the same situation ) and being a " GAMING" CPU , TDP should not even be mentioned . ( the 9xxx cpus don't consume much more power than their 8 serie counterparts when not 90%+ loaded neway ) Also, the 6300 should have a defenite mention as potential overclocking processor as it is fairly cheap with alot of headroom with even mid level cooling device.Still performs less than the OCed i5, but the price difference might justify its use on entry to mid level rigs.

I have sold of few of those and they can perform very well and overclock high as well. However the power they require and the cooling requirements make them unsuitable for your average gamer to build. Plus for the expense you could purchase a similar performing or better Intel model which uses less power and doesn't require the special attention the FX-9000s needs, or you could purchase FX-8350 and OC it to a highly level and its cheaper and easier build.

 

[logainofhades]

Why would anyone want an FX 9370? For that kind of money, may as well buy a 4770k. Even a Xeon 1230v3 with a Z87 extreme4, for those that want multicard systems, is a better value than FX 9370 and one of its required motherboards. For a single card configuration, you could go with H87 and save even more. Even an H81 would be sufficient for a gaming build with an SSD and a storage drive with single fast card. You can get a 1230v3, an Asus H81 board and 16gb of ram for like $10 more than a 9370 and required board to run it. :lol: Anything past the FX 8320 is not a value part.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.30 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $374.29
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-20 14:59 EST-0500)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.30 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H81M-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($109.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $409.28
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-20 15:08 EST-0500)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-9370 4.4GHz 8-Core Processor ($229.99 @ TigerDirect)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme9 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $399.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-20 15:00 EST-0500)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($154.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($134.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $280.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-20 15:02 EST-0500)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($154.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $244.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-20 15:03 EST-0500)

 

[RedJaron]

What, you don't want a CPU that eats more power than your GPU? 😉

 

[logainofhades]

What, you don't want a CPU that eats more power than your GPU? 😉

My GPU is a little more power hungry, but not by much. 250w vs 220w. :lol:

 

[RedJaron]

And that's mainly when you're mining, not just gaming ( barring OC of course. )

 

[sfcampbell]

Shame on you Tom's Hardware. This article is called "Best Gaming CPUs For The Money," not "Best CPUs To Marry Up With Discrete GPUs For Enthusiast Gaming Rigs." Saying "[Kaveri APUs] don't offer much additional value"... "assuming you want discrete graphics" is a shallow perspective of a niche market contradictory to this article's title.With as many stream processors as an HD 7750 (and higher clock speed) Kaveri APUs are the first processors in history capable of providing a broad variety of games over 30fps at 1080p without dedicated graphics. While you might argue that detail settings may need to be reduced for APU gaming compared to a GPU, the truth is that no Intel CPU can dip a toe in gaming waters without dedicated graphics to carry the load. If you indeed have any appreciation for "Best Gaming CPUs" Kaveri APUs deserve no less than an honorable mention, rather than being flippantly scoffed at. Intel may still hold the edge on IPC [for what it's worth] but advances in APU technology with Kaveri Architecture (HUMA/HSA, GCN, Mantle, on-die video encoding engine) overshadow meager advancements in Intel HD Graphics _fill_in_the_blank_.

A CPU and dGPU is cheaper and faster than an APU. Enough said. This argument has been had before, many, many times. Also, APUs are crippled by memory bandwidth, even if they have lots of stream processors and high clock speeds.

Ok 'Someone Somewhere' [very original btw]... I'll take you up on your challenge. You have $150 to provide a quad core (hyperthreading permitted) Intel + dGPU solution in the ball park of AMD Kaveri 1080p frame rates. You are very confident about providing "better, cheaper"... by all means, impress us. Even at the shallow end your argument doesn't hold water. I don't need a lecture on DDR3 vs. GDDR5 RAM, and this article is not about memory bandwidth any more than it is about the dGPUs that make CPUs with garbage graphics look good at two to three times the cost. You may prefer an i5 + GTX 7xx for performance, but no other chip can match Kaveri's standalone capabilities for low cost, SFF, HTPC, and Bookshelf PCs. That's what "honorable mention" is for! I know the performance you can get with Intel Core CPU + dGPU combos... I have 6 at my home. Three of them score over 9000 in 3DMark Firestrike. Even after building high performance PCs for over a decade I can still appreciate the accomplishment that is the evolution of the Kaveri APU. If you fail to grasp that then you should take your Intel fanboy trolling elsewhere, because you're not doing the good readers who frequent this site any favors.

 

[logainofhades]

APU's lack of L3 cache kills their peformance. This is about the same price as a 7850k. Better CPU performance, and no need for higher priced ram to get the GPU performance. 7850k is about even with an R7 240 with proper ram.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($116.97 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 240 2GB Video Card ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $171.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-01 15:15 EST-0500)


Better yet, tell me which one you would rather game on?

This?
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($178.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Biostar A58MD Ver. 6.x Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $323.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-01 15:23 EST-0500)

Or this?
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($116.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $316.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-01 15:22 EST-0500)

Face it, other than very small mini-itx systems, Kaveri is useless for gamers.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Why does it need to be an Intel chip? When did I say I'd go for an Intel chip?

Just because I don't think the APU isn't value for money doesn't mean that AMD chips aren't.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 250 2GB Video Card ($74.78 @ Newegg)
Total: $154.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-01 22:13 EST-0500)

 

[lunyone]

So which one looks better for gaming and overall build with the CPU's you two are discussing (Someone Somewhere and Logainofhades):

AMD build (like I would build for a friend on a budget:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus A88XM-A Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($79.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($90.38 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $450.12
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-01 22:49 EST-0500)

Intel build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus B85M-G Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($90.38 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $485.32
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-01 22:56 EST-0500)

AMD APU build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($178.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus A88XM-A Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($79.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $468.74
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-01 22:59 EST-0500)

Obviously the dedicated GPU systems are going to perform better for gaming than the APU setup. If the AMD APU system was about $25-35 cheaper, than there would a bit more compelling reason to purchase the APU system. I think the A10 7850k APU is a bit spendy right now, but if you compare it to an Intel system running on integrated graphics there is no comparison when it comes to graphics.

 

[logainofhades]

I would rather have the i3 system of those 3. The 750k is, clock for clock, slower in games than a Phenom II X4 965. In more CPU bound titles, the 750k will fall behind. I wouldn't want anything less than an FX 6300 from AMD. It's not like I don't like AMD. I have 2 FX 8320 rigs at home. Thank you microcenter. 😀

 

[Isaiah4110]

I would rather have the i3 system of those 3. The 750k is, clock for clock, slower in games than a Phenom II X4 965. In more CPU bound titles, the 750k will fall behind. I wouldn't want anything less than an FX 6300 from AMD. It's not like I don't like AMD. I have 2 FX 8320 rigs at home. Thank you microcenter. 😀

So an AMD build more along these lines?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($113.48 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($47.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($81.51 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($41.02 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.38 @ Microcenter)
Total: $473.34
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-03 12:53 EST-0500)

 

[logainofhades]

Yes, I would much rather have that over a 7850k.

 

[Dichard Rawkins]

Xeon-based master race reporting in.

 

[lunyone]

I would rather have the i3 system of those 3. The 750k is, clock for clock, slower in games than a Phenom II X4 965. In more CPU bound titles, the 750k will fall behind. I wouldn't want anything less than an FX 6300 from AMD. It's not like I don't like AMD. I have 2 FX 8320 rigs at home. Thank you microcenter. 😀

Oh I agree on the 7850k build. I was just putting up the 3 possible builds that you guys were commenting on, so all could see what kind of $ differences that there were. I think the idea around the 750k CPU is that you have an inexpensive CPU that does most things well, matched up with the best GPU that you can afford. I'm not saying the i3 wouldn't be a bad match up, but at least I think that the next possible upgrade for AMD will be on the FM2+ (maybe). I guess it all depends on what your wanting to do and if you think either platform has enough upgrade path for you. The i3 build has plenty of room to upgrade, but Intel CPU's don't vary in price much over the years, so your not going to find them much cheaper than they are now.

 

[de5_Roy]

gotta ask: should the core i5 3350p be receiving full recommendation instead of honorable mention or a different haswell core i5? iirc intel phased out this one or will phase it out soon...ish.
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/Intel-Core%20i5-3350P.html
http://fudzilla.com/home/item/33413-intel-eols-34-processors-until-by-q1-2014
imo, it's time to let this one go (with a heavy heart...?).

 

[logainofhades]

The 3350p should be replaced with the i5 4430/4440. They are both like 180-185 now. Another month without an FX 8320, which deserves at least an honorable mention.

 

[h2323]

Oh toms, your so out of touch

 

[rygaroo]

Can you add Haswell i3's to the "Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart" (e.g. 4340, 4330, 4130...)? I suspect they go in the 2nd tier w/ their ivy bridge counterparts.

 

[ohyouknow]

If you have a 1080p monitor and a capable graphics card at that res. cpu preference matters much less. Now if we could see multiplayer online benches (even if there are too many variables) then I'd take cpu benches /w GPU's more seriously.

 

[AnEwG]

The fact that the i3-2100 was ranking higher on a Far Cry 3 benchmark here on Tom's than even the FX-8350 while in benchmarks I found elsewhere even the FX-4100 chip ranked higher than the i3-2100, makes me wonder about the credibility of benchmarks here on this site.

 

[kiniku]

Not that its a monumental processor but why hasn't the Kaveri A10-7850K made it to the hierarchy chart?